The Most Ecologically Sound Japanese Mahjong Set?

Is this the world's first recycled mahjong set? It's made of PET (actually, R-PET, the "R" standing for "recycled"), the kind of plastic that soft drinks bottles are made of here in Japan.

It is produced by Taiyo Chemicals, the Japanese chemicals and plastics company.

I just added the set to my listings over at http://japanese-games-shop, and blogged about it on the same site. See:

 the-white-tiger-recyled-pet-japanese-mahjong-set

Unusual Nintendo "Sparkling Diamond" Mahjong Set on Tripleclicks...

Here are some photos of an unusual Japanese mahjong set that used to be produced by Nintendo, called the "Sparkling Diamond" set, or "houpai" in Japanese.

The unique feature of this set is the tile after which it takes its name, a single tile with an embedded "jewel" at the center of a four-pointed star with a red aurora around it.



Note also the "Nintendo turtle" hiding in the design of the 1-Coins ("ii-pin") tile.



The tiles in this set are still in their wrappers. Nintendo tiles are always good quality. However, this set has NO Red Fives. Actually, Japanese sets did not use to include Red Fives. Instead, if you wanted Red Fives you could ask your supplier to have some of the Fives in your set painted red.

The case is the original Nintendo case. The hinges and locks work and the interior is in good condition. However, it has suffered some wear and tear on the surface and edges.



I have posted the Nintendo Sparkling Diamond Japanese Mahjong Set on the Tripleclicks garage sale site. Click the link to view the set on Tripleclicks.

Please note that there is ONLY ONE SPARKLING DIAMOND SET AVAILABLE...

David Hurley
Japanese Mahjong

More Japanese Mahjong Sets on TripleClicks

I have been adding more mahjong special offers and one-off mahjong sets to the Tripleclicks garage sale site.

Today I have 5 different mahjong sets featured on the site, which either (a) are not featured on my main site at Japanese-Mahjong.com or (b) are available on my website but I am running a special offer on Tripleclicks.

Note, I am only offering one of each type of mahjong set at a time on Tripleclicks. So far the most popular item is the $35 Classic Japanese Mahjong Set.



This set is a real bargain because the Classic Japanese Mahjong Set costs $45 on my site, and the tiles are indistinguishable from the Sango set that goes for $55.

I am also offering a similar quality Japanese Mahjong set with GREEN TILE BACKS for $45.

I have a spare set of new "Classic" Japanese mahjong tiles that I posted on TripleClicks for just $25. Note, they are literally just "Japanese mahjong tiles", wrapped in their original wrapper, with no case, trays, game accessories etc.

Then there are the novelty sets...

1. Sushi Mahjong!

This is a great party version of mahjong and not to be taken too seriously... It is available on Tripleclicks for just $55.

2. Saki 1.5 Mahjong Set

This is a real collector's item for fans of the Saki manga series and of Japanese mahjong. This set came out in 2008 and cost about $100 at the time (i.e. around 10,000 Japanese yen) but has been featured on Amazon.co.jp and Yahoo.co.jp for prices of $500 and $1,000... So I don't think the set I am offering will be around for too long as it is going for just $175, despite being in excellent condition and complete.



I have already received several enquiries about this set and the later Saki 2.0 so if I can find some more sets and good prices I will certainly post them on Tripleclicks...

The best thing to do is to check this link from time to time and type "mahjong" into the search field:

http://www.tripleclicks.com/bargains

David Hurley
Japanese-Games-Shop.com

Japanese Akagi Mahjong Set on TripleClicks

A full-sized Japanese Akagi Mahjong Set is currently available on TripleClicks.com.

Three quarters of the tiles of an Akagi Mahjong Set are completely transparent, the remaining quarter being standard white/bamboo style. The tiles are pulled out of a hole in the table and the players each wear a glove so they can't cheat by reading the tile face with their thumb.

Akagi Mahjong Sets became popular in Japan after the success of the Japanese manga comic series "Akagi" and the exploits of its eponymous hero.

Check out the Japanese Akagi Mahjong Set by clicking this link! There is only one set available on the site, so if you are looking to buy a set, hurry over there and secure it right away!

David Hurley
Japanese-Games-Shop.com

Back from my Holidays! The JGS Spring Clean Is Now Underway!

Blore Hall, Peak District, February 2009: Heading for our early morning swim...

Bodiam Castle, Sussex, England, March 2nd 2009

Two and a half weeks in England and hardly any time spent on a computer!

The upper photo shows my daughter in front of Blore Hall, where we stayed for a week. It is about 7am and we are off to have a swim and a sauna.

The lower photo is of Bodiam Castle in Sussex. We spent the last few days of our holiday in the Weald of Kent close to the sussex border and as my daughter had told me she wanted to visit a castle in England (in search of Prince Charming, I think), Bodiam was the ideal choice.

It is now two and a half weeks since we returned to Japan and I have only just got around to updating Japanese-Games-Shop.com. It was in dire need of a spring clean!

Here is what I did to the site yesterday evening, this afternoon and this evening:

• Added a 23-rod and a 27-rod Tomoe abacus to the Japanese Soroban page.
  
• Updated the manga pages: Some of Kodansha's bilingual manga are difficult to get hold of now, so I have replaced my own listings with Amazon.com listings.
• Posted new photos of the Nintendo New Ivory Mahjong Set on Japanese-Mahjong.com and updated the product page.
• Put in some major renovation work on the Hanafuda page. One link on that page directed people to a former website of mine that died more than two years ago!! All is spick and span now, dead links have been cropped, new Amazon listings have been added and the Hanafuda-Style Playing Cards are available again.
• The Shogi pages had gradually degenerated as stocks ran out towards the end of last year. Also, for some reason, one of the new sets was not showing. I have now re-listed the Hanayama Honkaku Shogi Set and added a new full-sized economy set, Shogi In A Box, which I think will prove popular. The Shogi pages are a work in progress at present.

Shogi In A Box

Tomoe 23-Rod Soroban - Get your head round that!

There will be several more announcements coming shortly... New shogi koma and possibly boards too... New mahjong accessories... and some completely new lines of goods too...

Watch this space!

Japanese Mini Mahjong Set With Transparent Tiles!

I have just updated my range of Japanese mahjong sets to include a new Mini Mahjong Set With Transparent Tiles


One improvement, I think, is the new-style Japanese acrylic mini mj set I just added. Now every single tile is transparent, so you can watch your opponents' every move - but go careful how you read those difficult character tiles!!

The craze for playing with transparent mahjong tiles developed out of the Akagi manga series, in which the hero, Akagi has to play in a game using a set of tiles with 3 out of 4 tiles being transparent. If he loses he has to have so much blood drawn from his body... If he keeps on losing and he'll die of blood loss...

The mini mj set is really a novelty or party set, or a portable holiday set. The score sticks and dice are also mini-size. The dice are especially microscopic!!

Check out the Japanese Mini Mahjong Transparent Tile Set!

Introducing the "Take" Mahjong Set

The start of the year has certainly been busy and hectic (just how we like it at Japanese-Games-Shop.com). "Your Man In Japan" has been toiling away the hours on research, purchasing, adding new items to the range, publicizing them, dealing with new orders, packing parcels and hauling them to the post office, once it opened after the winter holidays...

Packing and hauling... packing and hauling... packing and hauling...

This week I have been holding two extended conversations with my suppliers and clients; one about a fine set of Japanese boxwood shogi pieces (report to follow soon), and the other about a new mahjong set that I have just added to my site. One moment I'm getting into the details of how different mahjong sets measure up to each other, and the next I'm admiring some finely crafted Shogi pieces, while trying to work out what my long-suffering supplier is telling me about the craftsman who made the set...

It was a bit of a shock when these pleasant activities were rudely interrupted by the beginning of college term and Your Man In Japan had to turn his attention back to the classroom. Don't get me wrong, I love teaching, but my New Year's Resolution is to take on no more teaching contracts and gradually whittle my teaching schedule down to just a few hours a week so that I can devote myself to my expanding my online activities. The last time I counted, I had five blogs and as many websites up and running and several domain names secured for further expansion... Here's a list of my active websites

• Japanese-Games-Shop.com
  
• Japanese-Mahjong.net
  
• Grasp-The-Nettle.com - Do you also want to make money online? Grasp the nettle in 2008!!
  
• English-Renaissance.net - Essays on Shakespeare, Francis Bacon, Ben Jonson etc.
  
• 100-Word-Book-Reviews.com - Get the guts of a book in exactly 100 words.
  
• Succeed-In-English.com - Study English with success! Study English & succeed!!
  

Introducing the "Take" Mahjong Set

The mahjong set I have been checking out this week was called to my attention by a player in Holland who wanted to know whether it was as good as it looked. I ordered a set from the supplier and put it through its paces...

Click the photo to enlarge


The "Take" (pronounced "TA-KEH" with the stress on the first syllable) mahjong is a mid-range set which is designed with ease of handling and smooth play in mind.

The Tiles

The tiles are noticably brighter than the standard "off white" colouring so the faces are clear and easy to read. The tiles are also a little bigger than the standard Japanese size, measuring 19mm x 29.5mm x 15mm.

Click the photo to enlarge
Mahjong manufacturers often design a slight convexity into the back of the tiles and add a "notch" in the sides to represent bamboo. The designers of the Take set have dropped these features in favour of a slightly flatter back which makes for more stable walls! The tiles are also slightly lighter than average.

Click the photo to enlarge

In the above photo you can see three tiles from three different Japanese mahjong sets. The one on the left is a standard Japanese mahjong tile, the middle one is from an exclusive set sold under the label of the Mahjong Museum in Chiba-ken. The tile on the right is from the "Take" set. As you will notice, it is slightly larger and brighter in finish than the other two.

The tiles are standing on a wall of "Take" tiles.

Click the photo to enlarge

The quality of the detailed paint work is also good - this is one of the most important considerations when I select mahjong sets for my site. I'm pleased to say that the paint work is good and accurate.

The tiles shown in the picture above are the Spring Season tile and the Red 5-Coin, which also has an "embedded jewel" replacing the middle coin.

Click the photo to enlarge

The "Take" tile is closest to the camera in the last picture.

Other Features of the Set

The set comes with plastic trays, seven dice of two different sizes, standard sized scoring sticks plus some extra counting chips, a wind marker PLUS a novelty "Black West Tile" keyring!!

The case is made of standard quality plastic, with poppers and a handle. On the back there is the logo of the set in yellow.

Order a Set

To order a "Take" mahjong set, click here. Delivery is by Express Mail Service, which includes tracking and insurance and, as a rule, gets the goods to your door within a week of the shipping date.

David Hurley
Japanese-Games-Shop.com

New Combinations At Nice Prices, Just In Time For Christmas!

The Christmas decorations have been in evidence here in Japan since HALLOWEEN (and the first Halloween decorations made their appearance sometime in September). Some private houses already have Christmas decorations up - it's CRAZY, and what's DOUBLY CRAZY is that this isn't even a Christian nation!!

As far as I'm concerned, we're not even in Advent yet.

There are still four more weeks before the little Christmas tree that I put in a pot and set outside our house last January will be brought back in again - the amazing thing is that it has SURVIVED. It will have earned itself the right to a bigger pot on 5th January 2008 - assuming it survives the shock of being brought back indoors for the Christmas season (which begins on 24th December, NOT 24th October or November).

So, it is not Christmas yet, and this is NOT a Christmas blog in any shape or form whatsoever...

New Shogi Combination Set At A Nice Price

A few months ago I introduced some cloth shogi "boards" to my website. They are hardwearing, convenient to carry around and cheap - oh, and very easy to ship around the world too.


Hardwearing, highly portable and cheap!

They have proved very popular and so today I combined the shogi cloth with a set of shogi pieces to make a new basic set for a reduced price of just $12.50 (down from $14.75), plus shipping and handling.

The set now heads my shogi and is the all new "Shogi Set 1". See Japanese-Games-Shop.com for details.

The other good news about the new combination set is that it is much easier to post than the previous "Shogi Set 1", which was a folding board that required protective wrapping and a larger envelope and was shipped by air freight (8-28 days delivery). Because the new set is lighter the shipping method has been upgraded to "small packet airmail" which usually takes between 5-10 days to get from Japan to Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand.

In other words, there is still time to take advantage of the nice price in time for... er, CHRISTMAS!

Express Mail Shipping From Japan For Premium Items

Talking about shipping times, the premium shogi koma sets, mahjong sets, and the new lighter and smarter mahjong "JUNK" mat are all shipped by Express Mail Service, which almost always gets parcels from the Japanese Post Office to your door within a week of shipping.



This sleek Black Mahjong Set and Junk Mat combination could be yours... in good time for Christmas too! Supplies are VERY limited, however, so CLICK HERE NOW to secure your set.

It may not be Christmas yet, but when it comes to ordering stuff from the other side of the globe it is worth remembering the wise words of Solomon to avoid disappointment on 25th December:

"The soul of the sluggard desires and has nothing." (Prov: 28.26)

Have a pleasant Advent, one and all - neither too antlike, nor too sluggardly!

David Hurley
Japanese-Games-Shop.com

Mahjong Sets: The Ugly, the Good & the Beautiful.

Regular visitors to the "mahjong shop" section of my website will be aware that I offer a range of eleven Japanese mahjong sets, from a standard set all the way up to an exclusive set complete with hand-made bamboo backs.

I have now upgraded the most basic set that I offer while keeping the price below $50. The standard set is now called the Japanese "Sango" Mahjong Set. It is housed in a smart "snap shut" case that is better finished than the case the previous "Standard MJ" set was housed in. The tiles are made to Japanese specifications and are "High Grade Mahjong Tiles".

You can get a close look at the Winds, Dragons, Seasons and Red Fives to check out the quality of the finish over at my Japanese Mahjong Goods site.

Every mahjong set I offer on my site has been made to Japanese specifications. Japanese specs cover size and also quality of production, including the quality of the plastic and paint that are used to produce the tiles.

The quality of the plastic that the tiles are made of is an important point to bear in mind when choosing a mahjong set. Cheap and nasty sets have a really noxious plastic odour to them. None of the sets I offer on my site are made of that ghastly cheap (almost certainly imported from you-know-where) plastic.

However, the other week I accidentally bought one such set. It has been filling my storage space with its noxious fumes. The only benefit I can put it to before throwing it away is to photograph the tiles so you can compare a cheap and nasty set to the sets I offer on my site.

Here goes!

Here are the cheap and nasty Winds, Dragons, Seasons and Red Fives. You will notice the poor finish, ill defined characters, and rather nasty plastic sheen.

Just imagine the whiffy pong of cheap plastic to complete the picture!





It gets worse when you check out the Bamboo and the Coin suits... That ghastly brute of a peacock looks more like a turkey!







The Coins are very blotchy - the nasty glossy paint has been carelessly applied so it runs over and obliterates the sketchy patterning.

The paint looks as if it is about to peel. I hate to think how much lead is in it...




Now, compare the Winds and Dragons of the most economical set that I offer, the "Sango" set that I discussed at the beginning of this article. The difference in quality is immense.

Straightaway the cleaner finish of the tiles is apparent. The paint has been carefully applied and the engraving is more detailed.

The tiles shown here are basic tiles made to Japanese standards. They are the most economical tiles that I offer on my site, yet they are far superior in quality on every count: quality of plastic, quality of paint, quality of engraving, quality of finish.


And now, just to complete the comparison, let's bring in my favourite Japanese mahjong set, the exclusive Nintendo "New Ivory" set for inspection:


The tiles have an ivory-style "grain" running through them and the engraving seems to shimmer above the surface.

So, you can see that when it comes to choosing a Japanese mahjong set, there is a huge difference between the ugly, the good and the beautiful!

DH
Japanese-Mahjong.com
Japanese-Games-Shop.com

Backlog Cleared! Mahjong Shop Expanded!

Backlog
Good news folks! The backlog that accumulated while I was away for a couple of weeks has now been cleared. The last big batch went out this afternoon...

Mahjong Shop
I have just added several Japanese mahjong sets to the range over at http://japanese-mahjong.com/mjgoods.html.

So now, as well as the classy "all black" mahjong set, the quirky "Sushi mahjong" set and the popular "bog-standard" Japanese set there is also a range of premium and deluxe mahjong sets to choose from.

The new sets are all made in Japan to Japanese specifications and a variety of styles.

Here is a selection of what is on offer:

• "Family" Mahjong Set - a well-finished standard set.
  
• "Bara" Black-Backed Mahjong Set - a set with black backs and white faces.
  
• "Yamato" Mahjong Set - a classic mid-range set
  
• "Hikari" Mahjong Set - a stylish green-backed set with a special "diamond bonus" tile.
  
• "Ran" Mahjong Set - a deluxe set with a high quality finish in a special calligraphic style.
  
• Two deluxe sets in baize cases by NINTENDO.
  
• Big Tile Mahjong Set.